6mm ACW: First Battle of Manassas

For a short while now I've been assembling opposed forces to represent the two sides at the First Battle of Manassas (July 21st 1861). I chose this as my battle of interest for a variety of reasons.

For one, it's a good small-scale engagement as clashes of ACW field armies go, with only about 18,000 men engaged on either side. This leaves it at a perfect scale to recognise and represent individual regiments and their action.

As another, the 'Enthusiastic Volunteer' or 'Over by Christmas' stage of any war interests me greatly, in particular due to the shattering of preconceptions about how things are done, and the required change of mindset that's brought about after just a few months.

This leads on to the third reason, and one which most Bull Run gamers seem to cite: The uniforms. This was the stage in the war by which the commonly recognised Union Blue and Confederate Grey/Butternut had not yet become universal, so the battlefield was a sea of any old colours which that regiment had happened to pick or receive supply of. While there’s a fairly one-sided debate on the issue, some companies in 1861 are said to have shown up in their pre-war dress uniforms, rather than the practical fatigue dress.

So because of these three factors of interesting history, practical scale, and interesting modelling, I’ve undertaken a project to represent all engaged regiments at First Manassas in 6mm. I’m going to be entirely using Commission Figures’ MDF soldiers, for their charm, cheapness, and ease of painting, and I will be attempting to replicate any units with known uniforms at some point in 1861.

Now I’m going to be inconsistent in my representation of dress uniforms, taking a balance of whether I can find information on what was worn in place of the dress, and whether or not the actual uniform is just another grey fatigue suit that will blend in with everyone else. Either way, I’m hoping to record all of my findings and explain my decisions.

Now I’m not much of a concise or engaging writer, so I’ll end there and leave you until I introduce Evans’ Demi-Brigade.

Introduction

This is going to be my wargaming blog going onwards, with all that entails.
Generally I am most interested by civil wars and the confusion and low-level politics associated with them, and on top of that my interest is most often in the early parts of wars, when preconceptions all fall apart.

I’ll be keeping track of my 6mm ACW, 28mm ECW, and 28mm VBCW here. More to be seen as I get to it.